Friday, December 19, 2014 — DT 27545

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 27545
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Friday, July 18, 2014
Setter Giovanni (Don Manley)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 27545]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Deep Threat
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

We are offered up another fairly stiff challenge today, although I fared better with this puzzle than I did with yesterday's.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (&lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//). Definitions presented in blue text are for terms that appear frequently.

Across

1a   City // engineers seen by the French house (6)

The Corps of Royal Engineers^[7], usually just called the Royal Engineers (abbreviation RE), and commonly known as the Sappers^[7], is a corps of the British Army that provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces.

In French, the feminine singular form of the definite article is la^[8].

Lahore^[5] is the capital of Punjab province and second-largest city of Pakistan, situated near the border with India; population 6,926,600 (est. 2009).

4a   A horrible dribble /from/ one making impromptu speech? (2-6)

9a   Like meadow /where/ poet's written about saints (6)

Thomas Gray^[5] (1716–1771) was an English poet, best known for ‘Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard’ (1751).

S^[5] (chiefly in Catholic use) is an abbreviation for Saint ⇒ S Ignatius Loyola.

10a   Ruins // meals about to be consumed (8)

The word "about" is not the containment indicator, but the fodder.

We must read the wordplay as a series of instructions as if it were written "meals; about to be consumed". That is, in the first step, we start with SUPPERS (meals); then, in the second step, C (about; circa) is inserted into (consumed [by]) the result from the first step.

11a   Czar due to travel round // holiday region (4,1'4)

13a   Atmosphere by lake // sensed, but not visually (5)

14a   Domestic decluttering exercise /in/ financial institution (8,5)

Deep Threat classifies this as a double definition and I have somewhat reluctantly gone along with that assessment — as I could think of no better option. The first definition is cryptic and a bit tenuous at that.

A clearing house^[5] is a bankers' establishment where cheques and bills from member banks are exchanged, so that only the balances need be paid in cash.

17a   Certainly not of the class of Eton, for instance (13)

This is one that — in hindsight — I should have had.

Eton College^[7], often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent [private] school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor". It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. [Note: In Britain, "public schools" are a special class of private school; what North Americans would call public schools seem to be referred to in Britain by terms such as state-run or state-funded schools].

21a   Alternative // parent maiden rejected (5)

This is another instance of a clue which must be separated into a series of instructions as if it were written "parent; maiden rejected".

In cricket, a maiden^[5], also known as a maiden over, (abbreviation M)^[5] is an over in which no runs are scored. An over^[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.

23a   Forthright, /or/ try endless charm? (9)

24a   Great // blunder if one Conservative follows Socialist ultimately? (8)

25a   Less productive // domestic helper, first to be dismissed (6)

26a   Do youngsters have the necessary capability /in/ restaurants? (8)

27a   Cook enslaving princess /for/ 24 hours (6)

Princess Ida^[7] (full name Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant) is a comic opera with music and libretto by the English team of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and Sir W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) respectively. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre in London, England in January 1884, for a run of 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. The prince to whom she had been married in infancy sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise themselves as women students, but are discovered, and all soon face a literal war between the sexes.

Down

1d   What's handed on // in fancy cage left upside down (6)

2d   Listen to army rebel/'s/ sorrow (9)

In the UK, the Territorial Army (TA)^[5] is a volunteer force locally organized to provide a reserve of trained and disciplined manpower for use in an emergency. [This is the former name of the force. It is now known as the Army Reserve.]

Che Guevara^[7] (1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

3d   Stuff left /in/ French street English man's collected (7)

And yet another clue which must be disected into a series of instructions, in this case "French street; English man's collected".

The French word for street is rue^[8].

In his review, Deep Threat makes reference to an advertising campaign conducted by British Gas in 1986.

British Gas plc^[7] [public limited company] was an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom which was formed when the state-owned British Gas Corporation was privatized in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher. In December 1986, its shares were floated on the London stock market. To encourage individuals to become shareholders, the offer was intensely advertised with the "If you see Sid...Tell him!" campaign. In 1997 the company was demerged into three separate parts — Centrica, BG Group and National Grid.

5d   Dogmatic // director in a recasting (11)

6d   Accuse // one politician? Every one! (7)

7d   Litre being poured into stomach /makes you/ dim (5)

Read "makes you" as meaning "produces the result for you (the one solving the puzzle)".

8d   Settled // with the answers filled in -- not for the first time! (8)

Is this not just as much a double definition as 14a? Deep Threat doesn't seem to think so.

12d   Nazi orators disturbed // one kind of religious believer (11)

A Zoroastrian is an adherent of Zoroastrianism^[5], a monotheistic pre-Islamic religion of ancient Persia founded by Zoroaster in the 6th century BC. The religion survives today in isolated areas of Iran and in India, where followers are known as Parsees.

15d   Ignorant /and/ no longer taken notice of? (9)

As with 8d, I cannot see why this is not a double definition despite Deep Threat not marking it as such.

I struggled to understand the second definition and I am still not certain that I comprehend it correctly. I believe that it may be alluding to unlearned^[5] in the sense of not needing to be learned or, in other words, innate ⇒ an unlearned behaviour pattern.

16d   Socratic meandering /creates/ a problem (8)

Problem in the sense of a puzzle. An acrostic^[5] is a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words.

18d   Our country poet Kathleen /in/ a foreign land (7)

Take note that this puzzle was initially published in the United Kingdom.

Kathleen Raine^[7] (1908–2003) was a British poet, critic, and scholar.

19d   Like some weapons /that/ could bring a cruel end to Man (7)

One could almost consider the entire clue to be the definition.

20d   Floor /of/ shop with the latest in haberdashery (6)

22d   Bird, // the female, held up by leg in the field (5)

In cricket, leg^[5] (also known as leg side) is the half of the field (as divided lengthways through the pitch) away from which the batsman's feet are pointed when standing to receive the ball ⇒ he played a lucky stroke to leg.

The leg side is also known as the on side (also called the on^[5]). Naturally, the other side of the field is known as the off side^[5] (also called the off).

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon